Gut microbiota profiles and fecal beta‐glucuronidase activity in kidney transplant recipients with and without post‐transplant diarrhea

Abstract

Post-transplant diarrhea is a common complication after solid organ transplantation and is frequently attributed to the widely prescribed immunosuppressant mycophenolate mofetil (MMF). Given recent work identifying the relationship between MMF toxicity and gut bacterial β-glucuronidase activity, we evaluated the relationship between gut microbiota composition, fecal β-glucuronidase activity, and post-transplant diarrhea. We recruited 97 kidney transplant recipients and profiled the gut microbiota in 273 fecal specimens using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. We further characterized fecal β-glucuronidase activity in a subset of this cohort. Kidney transplant recipients with post-transplant diarrhea had decreased gut microbial diversity and decreased relative gut abundances of 12 genera when compared to those without post-transplant diarrhea (adjusted p value < .15, Wilcoxon rank sum test). Among the kidney transplant recipients with post-transplant diarrhea, those with higher fecal β-glucuronidase activity had a more prolonged course of diarrhea (≥7 days) compared to patients with lower fecal β-glucuronidase activity (91% vs 40%, p = .02, Fisher's exact test). Our data reveal post-transplant diarrhea as a complex phenomenon with decreased gut microbial diversity and commensal gut organisms. This study further links commensal bacterial metabolism with an important clinical outcome measure, suggesting fecal β-glucuronidase activity could be a novel biomarker for gastrointestinal-related MMF toxicity.